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More interesting than the return of magic/occult powers imbued into words is the verbalist class's active will towards it. Thirty years ago, they would try to "take the power out" of taboo words (hence the creation of "queer theory"). Now they are back in recharge mode.
This is no doubt because of the internet, which has brought an unprecedented immediacy to written speech that in many ways simulates oral communication. Back in the 90s, the gay uber-liberal Dan Savage had an advice column called "Hey, Faggot!" That's unthinkable today.
Denuded of accompanying nonlinguistic signs, such as tone of voice, facial expression, indexicality, and so on, written language during the age of print could be standardized more easily, allowing the possibility of nationalism, probably the closest we'll get to unifying humanity
The internet, by contrast, corresponds with tribalism (micro-nationalism, basically). And peculiarity in the use of language -- e.g. in syntax, neologisms, shifts in word definition, etc. -- is one of the key ways a tribe distinguishes itself.
The academic obsession with Saussurean structuralism started in the 70s. This was a theory based on the observation that language is an arbitrary, convention-bound system of differences. The mania for "taking the power out of words" during the 90s corresponded to it.
But this emphasis on the demystification of language probably ought to be understood as a hangover from the age of print, something from which the academics are now departing.
Just as some renaissance intellectuals (Marsilio Ficino, Giordano Bruno) were using the printing press only for broader access to works written during the pre-print era, the (post-)structuralists were doing the equivalent, but with electronic media buttressing the age of print.
It was only a matter of time before the inner logic of online communication would reach the intellectuals, and as always, the material, pragmatic realities of their professions would force their hand. Say the N word, no matter the context, and you are barred from their tribe!
But this is not meant to be a "blackpilled" thread, and their tribe is goofy anyways. The truth is, the return of magic words is nothing to be upset about. There is much that can be done with magic. The religious understand this intuitively. Theurgy and the sacraments are real.
